Canada

The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario

The Honourable John Horgan
Premier of British Columbia
Victoria, BC

The Honourable Jason Kenney
Premier of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta

January 13, 2020

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau and Premiers Horgan and Kenney,

OTTAWA ­– With little more than a week left to submit entries, Amnesty International Canada invites Canadian journalists and students to apply for its 25th annual Media Awards.

**The deadline for submissions has been extended to Jan. 17, 2020 at 11:59 PM EST.** 

All entries must be published or broadcast in Canada between Oct. 1, 2018 and Dec. 31, 2019. Unfortunately, we can only accept English submissions at this time.

These awards honour the efforts of journalists to increase Canadians' awareness and understanding of human rights issues, while also highlighting excellent journalism.

You can read more about Amnesty International Canada’s Media Awards here or head directly to the submissions form to apply.

The winners will be announced in late February or early March 2020. A reception to honour the winners will be held in Toronto on May 6, 2020.

The youth of Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows) First Nation are demanding the Canadian government keep its promises to finally address the mercury crisis in their community. Because of government inaction for 50 years, generations of young Indigenous people have grown up with devastating health problems and the loss of their cultural traditions like fishing and time on the land.

To help amplify their urgent call, the youth-led campaign for mercury justice was one of the focal cases of last month's global Write for Rights campaign, marking the beginning of a year-long campaign to mobilize Amnesty members and supporters in Canada and around the world. Grassy Narrows youth were one of ten global cases focused on young human rights defenders leading the charge for change in their communities. More than 400,000 letters of support from around the world called for justice for Grassy Narrows and contributed to the successful signing of an agreement to build a mercury care home. 

Highlights from the Write for Rights 2019 campaign:

TORONTO – There is not much to laugh at in the world these days, but Comics Without Borders is partnering with Amnesty International to shine a light in the darkness many of us are feeling.

Eight talented comedians will provide a night of levity on Saturday, Dec. 14 at the Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles St. West, starting at 7:30 p.m.

Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, will also be attending the event to give a short talk at the VIP reception and the onset of the show.

These comedians are available for interviews in advance (either in-studio or by phone):

Nour Hadidi, a Jordanian-born, Toronto-based comedian who has been featured on CBC, FLARE Magazine, and Just for Laughs. The Toronto Star named her one of the four comedians to watch in 2016.

Frank Spadone, a Toronto-based comedian who has frequented the top comedy clubs in the city and across Canada.

Leonard Chan, who won the Absolute Comedy Prove You're a Comic contest in 2016 and the Comedy Brawl in 2018, beating over 400 comics.

Amnesty International will appear as an intervening party before the Supreme Court of Canada in Saskatchewan and Ontario’s historic legal challenges of the federal carbon pricing plan. The two cases will be heard jointly on March 24-25, 2020.  The human rights organization was granted leave to intervene on December 4.

This case marks the first time that governmental climate action is challenged before the Supreme Court, as the legitimacy of Canada’s carbon pricing regime is called into question by several provincial governments challenging the federal government’s constitutional authority to regulate Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions in such a manner.

In the coming weeks and months, Amnesty will be doing everything we can to support the people of Grassy Narrows to finally achieve the justice they deserve. The youth-led campaign for mercury justice is one of the focal cases of this year’s global Write for Rights campaign, marking the beginning of a year-long campaign mobilizing Amnesty members and supporters in Canada and around the world. Sign up for Write for Rights now.

The people of Grassy Narrows First Nation in northwest Ontario have been hard-hit by mercury poisoning, after the government allowed a pulp mill to dump 10 tons of waste into a river in the 1960s. The damaging effects are still seen today.

Next year marks 50 years since the public first became aware of mercury poisoning at Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows). In all this time, the people of the Grassy Narrows First Nation have never received the help they need to deal with the devastating, and still ongoing, consequences of the poisoning of their river system and the fish on which they depend.

A coalition of Canadian civil society organizations is deeply dismayed that Global Affairs Canada claims it has found “no credible evidence” linking Canadian exports of military equipment to human rights violations committed by Saudi Arabia.

On 17 September 2019, the day Canada formally acceded to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the Deputy Ministers of International Trade and Foreign Affairs signed off on a redacted memorandum which indicates that, while Saudi Arabia’s overall human rights record remains “problematic,” federal officials “did not identify any existing permits or pending applications that would be of concern under the standard robust risk assessment framework.”